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Lauren & Justin

No fuss or frills - how one couple kept their wedding small and simple.

Remy Tumin

Keep it small, keep it simple.

That was the goal behind Lauren Chrien and Justin Brown’s September wedding. There was no fuss or frills, no large wedding party. Just the two of them and their families under the Edgartown Lighthouse.

Lauren’s mother planned much of the wedding, and they hired a day-of planner to help with logistics on the big day.

“We liked having a small wedding; it wasn’t stressful,” said Justin. “We just wanted to go to Martha’s Vineyard and enjoy ourselves and our family and focus on that.”

Lauren is in legal services and Justin is the co-founder of the tech company Big Marker. They live on Lake Michigan in Chicago with their baby girl, Evelyn.

They each visited the Vineyard growing up – she went to summer camp at FOCUS and he vacationed on the Island with his family. “For the two of us, it’s a really special place,” Lauren said.

The couple wanted their wedding to feel both classic and timeless. They kicked off their weekend-long celebration with a sunset cruise onboard the wooden yawl Magic Carpet, and rode to the Edgartown Lighthouse in a 1940 Oldsmobile station wagon made almost entirely out of wood.

Following the ceremony, Lauren and Justin hosted a small dinner party at the Lambert’s Cove Church and Parsonage, a former house of worship since converted into a private residence, which they rented for the weekend.

“It was incredible,” said Justin. “It reminded me of growing up in Connecticut, and going on field trips to old school houses from New England. You could feel that history when you walked into this old chapel.”

Lauren is gluten-free and the menu was created around those dietary needs. In addition to a wedding cake, a groom's cake in the shape of Justin’s favorite animal also was ordered. “My husband loves bears,” Lauren laughed.

Another thing Justin loves: the history of the lighthouse where they were married. “To me, it was iconic and something that would always be memorable," he said. "And as a literal beacon and literal signal, I think it means something very powerful for love and marriage.”